The winners of the first Anguilla Public Service Awards were announced on Tuesday to coincide with UN Public Service Day. All those shortlisted across five award categories have gone beyond the everyday, displaying energy, creativity and confidence, to achieve something extraordinary to help Anguilla. My heartiest congratulations and sincerest thanks go to them all.
The nominees include inspirational public servants who have, through commitment and creativity, helped to change people’s lives. They have digitalised, accelerated, improved the quality or reduced the cost of what Government does. They have prevented criminals from passing our borders, worked in difficult circumstances, represented Anguilla internationally, and much more besides. But above all they have refused to settle for ‘good enough’ in their commitment to serving the public.
These Awards matter not only because they are well-deserved recognition for the individuals and teams who receive them. That is, of course, important. But they also give lessons to all of us who work in, or with, the Public Service, helping to spread best practice, encouraging the spirit of innovation, and promoting excellent customer focus and leadership.
These are not easy times for the public service, nor indeed for the budgets of the Government of Anguilla. We expect our public servants to deliver ever increasing services across wider policy areas. We ask them to do this with constrained budgets, and on flat pay. We require them to operate in an increasingly complicated, regulated world, with costs on a seemingly endless upward trajectory.
This core challenge – how to deliver ever better services with fewer resources – therefore demands a public service that can innovate, is confident, and empowers and inspires every one of its members to give their best, and to be the best. The talents and energies of its people are the greatest asset the public service has. If they are not used to the fullest, then they – then we – become no more than a burden on the tax payer, who pays the bills.
So all leaders and managers throughout the service have an important role to play by recognising, celebrating and rewarding strong performance. Not just once a year, but as standard practice. We should say ‘thank you’ much more often, to inspire all public servants to realise their value to the organisation, and to the public to which they are accountable and serve.
So I applaud those nominated, and all others who work every day with passion and pride to serve the public, acting with the core values of honesty, impartiality and objectivity. Thank you.
I look forward to seeing the annual Awards showcase and celebrate excellence in the Anguillan Public Service in years to come. Seeing these values in action, applied with dedication by hardworking individuals, really does make me proud to work with a service that strives to improve life for the people of Anguilla.
